The gold parity unit of account was the
unit of account
In economics, unit of account is one of the money functions. A unit of account is a standard numerical monetary unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a "measure" or "standard" of rela ...
used by the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1958, and in the
European Economic Community from 1962 until the early 1970s.
[European Union Public Finance]
European Commission, , published 2002, accessed 20112-01-09[Council Directive 78/669/EEC of 2 August 1978]
EUR-Lex, accessed 20112-01-09 The unit was fixed to the value of
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
under the
Bretton Woods system, and was equivalent to the
US dollar
The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...
which the ECSC had previously used.
[Of Snakes in the Tunnell, Green ECU's and the EMU]
B Steiner, University of Reading, published 1993, accessed 2012-01-09
After the
collapse of the Bretton Woods system, more than one unit of account was used
[La situación de la agricultura en la Unión Europea : Informe 2001]
Published 03-02-12, accessed 20112-01-09 until the
European Unit of Account The European Unit of Account (EUA) was a unit of account most notably used in the European Communities from 1975 to 1979, when it was replaced at parity by the European Currency Unit, in turn replaced at parity in 1999 by the euro.
The EUA was intr ...
(EUA) was eventually adopted as a universal replacement from 1977.
The EUA was replaced, in turn, by the
European Currency Unit
The European Currency Unit (, ; , ECU, or XEU) was a unit of account used by the European Economic Community and composed of a basket of member country currencies. The ECU came in to operation on 13 March 1979 and was assigned the ISO 42 ...
in 1981.
References
Currencies of Europe
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